My go-to work on, at least the early history of Israel, is Donald Redford’s Egypt, Canaan and Israel. When we look at the Israelites being dominated at that time, during their history as the dual nations of Israel and Judah, the reason is simple. They existed in a key geographical area that was a major trade route.
It was the area people wanted. And surrounding that area were the Egyptians and the various dominant cultures in Mesopotamia. The goal was never really centered on just Israel. They weren’t a big enough player.
At times, nations like Egypt, or the Babylonians, would react to them either when they felt like Israel was trying to exert too much power or when they sided with the wrong group. But most, leading up to the Roman time period, they were a relatively unimportant nation in a geographical area that was deemed very important. Really, they weren’t treated all that differently from other minor players who simply were in the way.
A change does occur during the Roman period. Michael White has a great book on this called From Jesus to Christianity. He’s exploring more of the development of Christianity, but that means diving into this same Roman time period and Judaism.
Judaism, being more of an ancient religion, received a level of respect from the Romans, who were fond of the ancient. The Jews had a bit of autonomy during the first century, but then we have two Jewish wars, where they tried to overthrow the Roman government and kick them out of the Levant. Well, we know they lost, and they do face persecution from the Romans, and for a logical reason. They rebelled. But we have something else developing here.
Out of the first Jewish War, only two factions of Jews remained. There were the Pharisees, who became Rabbinical Judaism, and there were the Jewish Christians (the foundations of Christianity). The Pharisees set out to really concentrate Judaism, to seek unity among Jews, as it was the way they were to preserve themselves in this new world without a Temple or a real home.
The Jewish Christians really resisted. They weren’t going to give up their belief in Jesus as the Messiah. This divide would be increased during the Second Jewish War, where the Jewish Christians really didn’t give much support to the Jewish rebellion. They stepped back, and the divide between the two groups would not be crossed.
But there is more coupled with all of this. John Dominic Crossan has an excellent argument about this in his work, Who Killed Jesus?: Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus. In the aftermath of the first Jewish revolt, you have a split Judaism; what would be Rabbinical Judaism on one side and what would be Christianity on the other. And there is bad blood there. Both sides build polemics against each other, but then Christianity becomes a major force.
As we know, in the Gospel stories, Jews (or specifically Pharisees) get a very bad rap. They are often insulted or put down. They are simply demonized. Ironically, there have been quite a few suggestions that Jesus may have been a Pharisee, and Paul was definitely a Pharisee. But as time progresses, the Jews get more and more blame when it comes to the death of Jesus. In later “gospels” and Christian works, the Romans are basically let off the hook, with Pontius Pilate even taking on a role in trying to save Jesus. Pilate is almost painted as a saint in later Christian works.
The reason for making the Jews the guilty party is two-fold. The Pharisees were persecuting the Christians, and making claims such as what we see in Matthew, that the body of Jesus was simply stolen instead of him being resurrected. So the Christians threw back their own propaganda. On the other hand though, holding Jesus, a criminal in the eyes of Rome, in high regard could be life-threatening. So they start trying to refocus the blame so as not to appear as if they were insurrectionists, like Jesus was said to be.
Now, to begin with, such back and forth wasn’t really dangerous. But that changed when Christianity took a more dominant role in Rome, and Western society as a whole. The propaganda against the Jews continued to grow, but now it was becoming lethal. And with Jewish people not having a real homeland anymore, and them often being somewhat sectioned off by themselves, it was easy to paint them as the other and persecute them.
So the answer really is two-fold. First, Israel was founded in a hostile area. They were relatively unimportant, but the area they were inhabiting was important. Later on, the persecution would be the result of regular inter-Jewish dynamics that happened at a terrible time, as groups of Jews were trying to overthrow Rome, and Christianity and Judaism really were splitting, with the former eventually rising in power. The inter-Jewish dynamics turned into something much more, and it had harsh outcomes.